My younger sister insisted on marrying me and made me the Marquis' wife.

Chapter 153: Lady's Origin

Gu Shiliu tried his best to suppress his anger and asked, "Why can't you take a look at these poems first? These were written by my sixth master and several other scholars. The Minister of Rites and the Academician said they were very good."

The bookstore owner sneered, "It's just someone's empty talk, how can you take it seriously? Everyone knows that Master Gu Liu of Dingbei Marquis's mansion loves to pretend to be cultured, visit prostitutes and go boating on the lake, and his poems are shit. Don't embarrass yourself here. Dingbei Marquis loves his younger brother, but others don't."

Gu Shiliu really wanted to punch the man, but thinking that he had many things to take care of today, and after the mansion was closed tomorrow, it would be inconvenient for him to go out, he stopped pestering and turned away.

The bookstore owner was still not satisfied, and shouted behind him: "I advise you crude warriors not to use money to make scholars like us bow down. Being able to have a wife and children with military merit is already a blessing from our ancestors. How can such a noble thing as reading be forced?"

The crowd who stopped to watch the excitement laughed out loud.

Gu Shiliu just turned his head and spat, then ignored him.

Lord Gu is very strict in disciplining his army and will never allow his subordinates to bully others by abusing their power. Moreover, the Dingbei Marquisate is currently in a turbulent time, and he must not do anything that would damage the prestige of the Marquisate because of a verbal dispute.

Gu Shiliu thought that even if the largest bookstore failed, there would always be other bookstores or bookshops willing to do the job.

Who would have thought that he would be rejected wherever he went? Gu Shiliu was so angry that his eyes turned red. He grabbed the owner of a small bookstore and asked, "Why do you reject me without even reading my poem?"

"We are a small business and cannot do that. The owner of Shuhai Pavilion has said that if anyone is greedy for a small amount of money and publishes this poetry collection for the Marquis' Mansion, it will be against Shuhai Pavilion."

Gu Shiliu was confused and said, "Everyone opens a shop based on their own abilities. Why are you so afraid of him?"

"You don't know if you are not in this business. The biggest income from our book sales every year comes from essays, followed by storybooks, and these poetry collections only account for a small part. If someone wants to become famous and pays a little, we can find someone to print the plates and do some private printing business."

"The essays published by Shuhai Pavilion are selling well every year. Scholars only recognize the essays selected by Shuhai Pavilion. If I take this little money from the Marquis' Mansion, Shuhai Pavilion will no longer allow me to sell essays exclusively, and my store will have to close. I really can't afford to offend them."

Gu Shiliu was devastated.

From this perspective, even if he went to other provinces, I'm afraid no one would be willing to agree to his request.

It's really too much of a lie.

Gu Shiliu had no choice but to suppress the matter and investigate the Xu family. However, he did not expect that the Xu family’s affairs could not be thoroughly investigated in a day or two.

He couldn't explain any of the things that Lord Gu had assigned to him. The memorial had already been submitted today, and the Marquis's Mansion would be closed tomorrow.

Gu Shiliu was inevitably discouraged. He lowered his head and kicked the stones on the road, but he heard someone calling him from behind: "Brother Shiliu, what's on your mind?"

He turned around and saw a mellow-looking man with a friendly face looking at him with a smile.

This person looked somewhat familiar, but Gu Shiliu couldn't remember where he had seen him.

"Brother Sixteen is busy outside every day, I'm afraid you don't remember me. I'm Madam's companion, Shen Changle."

"Oh..." Gu Shiliu remembered and said, "I went to Jizhou a while ago. I came back and rested for only two days before I was busy outside again. I rarely saw Brother Shen."

Shen Changle didn't take it seriously and said, "I'm also out and about every day. Madam's dowry shop is under my supervision. There's a small shop in the West Market, which is in a remote location and small. I was just thinking about what kind of business to start, but the mansion has to be sealed again."

Gu Shiliu chatted with him for a while. Shen Changle asked, "I see that Brother Shiliu seems to be worried about something. Are you worried about the task that the Marquis has assigned to you?"

Gu Shiliu asked curiously: "How do you know?"

"What's so difficult about this?" Shen Changle smiled, his eyes narrowed into slits, and said, "When I saw Brother Sixteen's figure, I knew you had encountered difficulties. When I talked to you, you didn't seem to be full of sorrow. Obviously, this is not your personal matter, but something that the Marquis entrusted to you. This matter is not important, but it is not very important. Brother Sixteen just wants to do his best to accomplish it."

"Good vision," Gu Shiliu admired him very much.

The madam is amazing, and her companion is also amazing.

"If you, my sixteen brothers, believe me, you might as well tell me. We all work for the master and we all hope for the best for the master. Besides, three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang."

Shen Changle's mellow and open-minded appearance immediately touched Gu Shiliu.

"Then let's go to the teahouse and talk."

Gu Shiliu had been running around for half a day and had not yet had his meal, so he took Shen Changle to a teahouse to have tea and ordered two bowls of noodles with braised pork. By the time the noodles were served, Shen Changle and Gu Shiliu had become good brothers who could talk about anything.

Shen Changle said, "If this happened to someone else, I'm afraid it wouldn't work, but brother, you met me today, and this is about our Qin family's Young Master and Gu Liuye, so I can find a way to get it done."

Gu Shiliu said, "Hey, Brother Shen, if this is done, you will be my half-brother. Do you know anyone who can help me get it done?"

Shen Changle smiled and said, "That's not necessary. The owner of Shuhai Pavilion is a third-class Tong Jinshi. Do you know what a Tong Jinshi is? Although it is one level higher than a Juren, it is looked down upon by the first- and second-class Jinshi. Some people say that Tong Jinshi is Madam Ru, and Madam Ru is a concubine. They compare Jinshi to a wife and Tong Jinshi to a concubine. Isn't it very mean of scholars? There are also couplets, saying that he washed Madam Ru's feet and was granted the Tong Jinshi status."

Gu Shiliu couldn't help but laugh and praised: "If Brother Shen hadn't said this, a warrior like me wouldn't know this."

Shen Changle said, "It's just that I heard more about him from the family of the Master of the Imperial Academy. He was arrogant and proud. He didn't expect that he would be a fellow Jinshi when the list was announced. He didn't want to be humiliated by others and didn't choose an official position. He opened a bookstore in the capital. He was on good terms with several Jinshi in the first and second classes of the same batch. He paid them a lot of money to annotate the essays of past dynasties, and gradually his business grew. He targeted you like this, which is nothing more than his old habit of being self-righteous."

After saying that, he buried his head in eating noodles.

Gu Shiliu asked: "What should we do then?"

Shen Changle said vaguely: "Eat the noodles first, and I'll talk to you. The noodles are almost clumping together. I guarantee that this matter can be handled well, don't worry."

Gu Shiliu quickly picked up the chopsticks and finished the noodles in a few bites, while Shen Changle still had half left.

"We rough people are used to this. Please forgive me, Brother Shen."

Shen Changle finished his noodles, stretched lazily, and said, "You must have developed this habit while following the Marquis in the army. I've seen many soldiers eat like this. But I advise you, it's okay for you to do this now that you're young, but when you get older, your stomach will be damaged."

Gu Shiliu chuckled and looked at Shen Changle eagerly, waiting for his next words.

Shen Changle smiled and said, "Let's go find the Madam."

Gu Shiliu: “?”

(End of this chapter)